Once a week I give my house a good scrubbing, but I tend to clean my kitchen daily, since I use it the most. I am always in there cooking. Plus, life with two kids means there is an endless parade of crumbs, sticky hands, and dribbles of chocolate milk wherever you look.

This kind of thing used to bother me. But then I got in the rhythm of doing a small daily cleaning instead of saving the mess for one gigantic clean-up after the weekend.

I’ve got 5 tricks up my sleeve that help me keep the kitchen pristine despite all the heavy use. This is how I do it:

After every meal (read: mess) I wipe the kitchen counters and any surface my kids have eaten on. The extra two minutes I take to do an easy wipe down right after every meal saves me a lot of time later on when drips and drops (like maple syrup) have dried. Clorox Pump ‘N Clean™ Kitchen & Dish Cleaner is food safe*, and having one product that cleans dishes and counters on hand is a nice time and space saver.

2. My family is in charge of cleaning and scraping their own dishes IMMEDIATELY after use.

We cycle through a full set of dishes every day. In order to relieve myself of the burden of a lengthy dish-to-dishwasher process I don’t allow myself to let anything wallow in the sink. Every dish is scraped, rinsed, and put in the dishwasher before the meal is officially considered over.

3. Once a week, usually on Mondays, I do a quick inventory of the cabinets, fridge, and freezer.

This helps me weed out anything that is stale/rotten. Nabbing these food offenders before they cause a mess is key! I also use anything up in soup or salad that appears to be on the brink. I hate letting perishables go to waste!

4. We wipe down all counters and surfaces at the end of the day.

My daughter is old enough to help clean a little so I use our Clorox Pump ‘N Clean™ Kitchen & Dish Cleaner to get her in on the action. She helps me wipe down the counters quickly at the end of the day. We do it together and she gets a little tutorial on basic cleaning. She is rewarded with a check on her chore-list (a list which ultimately yields her allowance).

5. I keep a clean stack of cotton kitchen towels and napkins on hand.

To reduce our dependency on paper I use a lot of cotton kitchen towels and napkins. To keep them clean I make sure I do a kitchen laundry load at least twice a week. It is key to keeping stains at bay and making sure we are cleaning our counters with clean towels.

All these little things make such a difference and mean I have a clean kitchen for cooking and eating all week long!

*Do not use to clean up after raw meat or fish.

This post was sponsored by Clorox. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Kelsey Banfield, The Naptime Chef, believes parents don't have to give up being foodies just because they have kids. Kelsey's website features webisodes, recipes and ideas on how to fit delicious food into everyday life, without compromising quality or taste. Kelsey is also the author of the newly published cookbook, The Naptime Chef Fitting Great Food Into Family Life.